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Details are slowly leaking out about the Alton Sterling officer involved shooting. Alton Sterling apparently had a criminal history that included carnal knowledge of a juvenile, aggravated battery, and illegal firearm possession. Clearly, he was not somebody who could legally possess a firearm at the time of the shooting. Internet detectives have uncovered information that Alton Sterling was actually a bloods gang member, but we have been unable to confirm the accuracy of that information at this time.

You can see our coverage of the first shooting video HERE and the second video coverage HERE.

Maya Lau has posted a video interview with the owner of the convenience store, who said that Sterling was his friend:

Muflahi described that after Sterling was shot, the police officers removed a gun from his pocket. Self-proclaimed internet experts are claiming that the gun in Sterling’s pocket is evidence that he was unjustly murdered. Sterling wasn’t pointing the gun at the officers after all. There’s also claims that, if there’s no gunshot residue on Sterling’s hands then it had to be unjustified, because he clearly hadn’t shot at the officers, right? You can even see this attitude displayed in comments on our own website in our coverage of the Alton Sterling shooting.

The fact is, once you let somebody point a gun at you, or shoot at you, then it’s often too late. Police officers do not, and should not, have to wait until after somebody has attempted to murder them before they can act. Police officers have a right, and a duty, to stop the attempted murder before it is completed. Had officers waited until Sterling had a gun pointed at them, then there would have been no way for them to stop him from shooting.

First you have to consider reaction times. There is a reactionary delay from the time that a police officer can recognize that a gun is pointed at them, to the time it takes them to pull the trigger on their gun. This almost guarantees that the suspect would be able to get their shot off first. Then you have to consider that unless somebody is instantly killed by a bullet to the brain, being shot doesn’t immediately stop somebody. Real-life isn’t Hollywood, and people don’t just instantly fall over dead when they get hit by a bullet. Until somebody’s blood pressure drops low enough, they are still in the fight.

Black Lives Matter is trying to spin this case as an obvious case of a man being shot because he was black. They are ignoring that not only was Sterling an armed felon who was resisting arrest, but the officers knew that they were on camera. At the very least, officers knew that:

They had body cameras.

They had a dash camera.

They were at a convenience store, which had security cameras.

Even if you’re nutty enough to believe the absurd narrative of rogue officers shooting people for being black, wouldn’t you expect that the officers wouldn’t do it on camera if they didn’t think that the shooting was justified? We are confident that the officers believed that Sterling was reaching for his gun, which means that they actually probably saw Sterling reaching for his gun.

Records from the 19th Judicial District Court show that in August 2015 the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office issued a warrant for the arrest of an Alton Sterling who had registered as a convicted sex offender to live at the center at the Brookstown address. Sterling was convicted of one count of carnal knowledge of a juvenile in Sept. 2000, according to the warrant.

While Sterling had registered at the address in July, a probation officer who checked on him in August was told by the center manager that Sterling hadn’t lived there for two weeks.

The DA’s office filed a failure to register as a sex offender charge against Sterling in April.

Sterling’s court record shows he was accused of several crimes dating back to 1996. He’d pleaded guilty to aggravated battery, simple criminal damage to property and unauthorized entry, as well as domestic abuse battery. His longest sentence appeared to come in 2009, when he was sentenced to five years on possessing marijuana with the intent to distribute and illegally carrying a weapon with a controlled dangerous substance.

People question why the Alton Sterling criminal history is relevant, because officers couldn’t have known his history at the time. Alton Sterling’s criminal history is relevant because when the media paints the picture of a gentle giant family man, who would never harm anybody, it’s hard to believe that he would fight with police officers and then reach for a gun to murder them. When you have the facts that Sterling was a violent child molester with a history of illegally carrying firearms, you can see that he is exactly the type of person who might reach for a gun when fighting with officers.

At this time the officers have been identified, but in an effort to give the officers more time to protect their families from retaliation, we will delay discussing their identities until it becomes more widely circulated. We will keep providing you with updates as they come in.

The owner of the store should be charged for letting an illegally armed man set up and sell Pirated Movies and Music in his parking lot, effectively stealing from the people who spend their money creating this art, As far as there being a video of the event from a Cell Phone! If there was, and it showed any wrongdoing by the police, it would have been plastered all over the Net by now.

A criminal history tells you the character of a person. His is extensive with the use of weapons. A person with a long criminal history carriers a gun for a reason… To use it! The fact that he failed to appear and to register as a known sex offender is of concern. It gives him more reason to resist arrest and use deadly force against the police. This guy is no Boy Scout ! Please… Anytime a police officer walks up to anyone he has no idea what your intent is but when you are resisting arrest with a gun in your pocket it is very clear!

charlie coyote

he should not have resisted if he wanted due process

Nana-Kofi Appiah

Message from Ghana, West Africa: God bless America.

Steph Harris

This means everything. Thank you. God bless Ghana.

JusticeMustPrevail

So because he had a criminal background he deserved to die?????? WTF!

Mike

The criminal history tells you the character of the man. Violent history with multiple resisting arrest charges. He resisted arrest before and wasn’t killed in the process. 19 other arrests and not a single one ended in his death until this one.
Play with guns and your gonna get shot. Stupid is as stupid does.

He was resisting arrest with a gun in his pocket! Are the police suppose to wait until he shoots them? It’s you or him. What don’t you people get !

Paola

So they had to kill him, like they couldn’t just shoot to injure enough to put him to the ground?! It states he had his gun in his pocket, just seems like what is written in this article is just a way to justify that what they did is okay because he was a convict. All lives matter, cops have a right to live so why doesn’t this black man have a right to live?

Blue4Ever

You dont shoot to injure, you shoot to stop the threat, period.

Eric

It works in the movies so why didn’t they do it? When you make a statement like “couldn’t they just shoot him enough to put him on the ground” or my favorite – “couldn’t they just shoot the gun out of his hand?” you immediately disqualify yourself from making any educated statement regarding law enforcement and guns. I think our law enforcement has been and border patrol has been militarized and our rights have been stripped away (see Steven Anderson & Border Patrol), but expecting a police officer to shoot to injure is one of the most offensive things I read. If someone has a gun and is a threat and refuses to stop, I’m shooting to stop the threat which generally means until they stop moving.

Mike

If you’re shooting to injure, you’re life is either not in danger or you don’t value your life.

Ashley

His criminal HISTORY has nothing to do with this. He was EXECUTED. Just like the way we’ve been executing Africans for 500 years.

Mike

Criminal history has EVERYTHING to do with it. It shows the content of the mans character. Defending a violent criminal like he’s some kind of alter boy.

Ashley our country is NOT 500 years old. Try reading a history book. You weren’t here and I wasn’t here.

David

“Police officers do not, and should not, have to wait until after somebody has attempted to murder them before they can act.”

If this isn’t disturbing to you, put yourself in the shoes of someone carrying a gun. What the person at this website is saying is that you need not be threatening to police officers, they only need to perceive you as a threat, they should be able to legally kill you!!!

Imagine for a moment that an unmarked police car runs a red light and nearly collides with you. In the heat of the moment, you throw up your hands in disgust and maybe flip the driver off. Let’s say he/she sees you. He/she pulls you over. Upon his/her approach to your window, he/she sees a gun in your car. You need not be threatening him/her, only that he/she perceives you as a threat to him/her. This person believes that the police officer should be legally justified to kill you!! That’s scary!!! Evidently, this is what Blue Lives Matter stands for.

Officer Blue

David, I’m going to assume that you are a reasonable person, so let’s talk about reasonableness. If a person is involved in a road rage incident and is contacted in possession of a gun, a reasonable officer wouldn’t believe that possession of a weapon is enough to justify an immediate threat. However, if somebody is actively fighting with the police, and they actually reach for the gun in their possession, a reasonable person would have to conclude that such person is presenting an immediate threat.

The next nigga y’all shoot

Except that scenario has no relevance to the story you posted about. The struggle began when Alton was tackled BEFORE being told why he was being arrested. BEFORE he had a chance to talk reasonably with the officers. Every single point you’ve made so far have been irrelevant to the case.

David

“Police officers do not, and should not, have to wait until after somebody has attempted to murder them before they can act.”

This statement clearly implies that police officers do not and should not have to wait for a threat to materialize. They only need to perceive a threat to justify the use of deadly force.

Reasonable? How reasonable is it to bring up a person’s criminal history to justify the use of deadly force against them? This would be no different than bringing up a rape victim’s sexual history to justify their victimization. The use of deadly force can only be justified by the actions of the suspect in the moments leading up to his death, not by something he did ten years ago!!

Mike

How stupid are you? He wasn’t resisting arrest to give the officers a hug. If you resist arrest and get into a wrestling match with a cop, you will die.
Why don’t you get in a wrestling match with a man who has a gun on his person and let’s see who gets shot first.
Criminals are fucking stupid.

robby

i am so glad i live in canada. yosesammity sam would be proud of this cop.

Tia

Look at the cell phone video first before you write your ridiculous article. It’s an actual video of the shooting showing that his hands were detained he was not a threat to the two officers pinning him down. It’s you trying to bring up his criminal past to justify cold blooded murder. FYI the video is on CNN. Do some research first

Mike

“Look at the cell phone video”?? Really, that grainy POS video? Why not the one from the store? Probably because it clearly shows this career criminal violent offender resisting arrest. It’s called thinning the herd.

Julia Carias-Linares

His background is so irrelevant at this point! The truth of the matter is that these officers killed someone unnecessarily at close range. F*ck that! They acted irresponsiblyand negligent. Stop trying to make up excuses for POOR, irresponsible and inexcusable behavior. One can only wonder how differently this would have played out had he been white. I can almost guarantee this would have been handled differently.

Mike

He was arrested 19 other times and didn’t get shot, also in possession of an illegal firearm. Did he just turn black or was he black the other 19 times he was arrested without being killed?

Mike

Yet you make excuses for the EXACT SAME THING. Only your doing it for someone who chose the life of a criminal. FYI, this was his second or third time resisting arrest while in possession of an illegal firearm. This time it didn’t pan out as well for him

Tasha S

Of course bring up his past because of it’s hAS TO BE HIS fault he died at the hands of the police. Why would anyone expect the justice system to actually work..It is innocent UNTIL proven guilty, we’ll unless your black then it turns into TRIAL BY COP!!!!

Officer Blue

Using deadly force is not a punitive act, it’s done to stop the threat presented by the suspect. His crime up to that point is irrelevant. If somebody is stopped for jaywalking and they reach for a gun, then are subsequently shot, they were not shot for jaywalking.

Mike

So it’s ok to bring up the past when it benefits black people but when it doesn’t, keep that shit hush. That’s called being a hypocrite.

He was arrested 19 other times with multiple resisting charges and possession of an illegal firearm. He didn’t get shot the first 19 times, the 20th time he was killed.
But yeah I totally see why his past is irrelevant.

Mika Evans

So in your opinion he deserved to die. No matter how who or what. He was a criminal and criminals deserve death.

charlie coyote

He was a piece of shit. The officers cleaned up a piece of shit on the streets. That racist fat fuck welfare recipient. He deserved to die a long time ago when he was molesting children. Karma caught up with his bitch ass

Wow.. So a criminal record (that the cops who MURDERED HIM did not know about) denies a US citizen due process and allows a cop to murder him? Typical dumbass cop talk to justify more racial killings… When will the good cops speak up against the racist piece of shit cops out there?

Another Black Man

The video doesn’t lie. Dude was restrained and they shot him point blank. Those cops were cowards. They knew they were being taped and did it anyway because they knew they could beat the murder charge. I’m sick of police officers trying to defend each other even when the evidence makes the wrongdoing painfully obvious (pun intended). I don’t need to be told how hard/scary it is to be a police officer. If you are that scared go into a different line of work! And for the other “good” officers out there it makes you look just as guilty when you fail to call out the bad apples instead of defending how hard the job is.
Just like you shared the victims criminal history, share the pics of the officers/killers social media pics of them holding guns proudly. Let folks know their history and background.

Mike

Their history isn’t violent, isn’t criminal, and isn’t showing a criminal “holding a gun proudly” which is a crime in and of itself.
If your a felon, your a person prohibited. He knew that but he didn’t care. We have laws in this country.

I can Post a picture of me playing catch with a gun while riding a fucking unicorn on social media because I’m not a fucking felon.
Your also part of the problem

JustTryingToLive

Soooo….what about both of their cameras conveniently being knocked off in the scuffle?? I have a friend who is in the military and went to Iraq and he said his camera never fell off and he was in some crazy stuff?? Just an odd little coincidence I guess…

K G Coker

If he had obeyed the lawful commands and not resisted arrest he would still be alive.

MH

This article is tasteless and shows just how disposable most white Americans believe that black lives are. When a gay night club is shot up by a non-white person of color who has roots in a foreign country, it was an radical Islamic terrorism. When a black man is killed in cold-blood, it is because he was larger in size, posed a reasonable threat, and had a history of violent criminal activity, but when a college, school, church or movie theater is shot up by a white person, it is because that person is mentally unstable. Instead of focusing on this man’s criminal history, focus on the fact that there needs to be police reform throughout the country and just as we require our senators and representatives to live in the district in which they seek to represent, we should require this of our officers. Just as we require teachers, doctors and lawyers to obtain degrees from a higher education institutions, we should require this of our service members. Just because you own a blue suit, badge, passed a few endurance tests and a couple hours of lectures, does not automatically qualify you to serve as an officer especially if, when put in situations or environments that you aren’t familiar with, you get nervous and your first instinct is to shoot and kill. At the end of the day, this man lost his life, his family lost a father, a husband, and a friend. I know this will be hard for you to do, but respect this man’s name and let him, at very least, sleep peacefully and his family receive some sort of justice and mourn without being slapped in the face with articles as classless and distasteful as this. May God be with you.

Mike

But no criminal reform? 38 million black people in America yet only 200 managed to be killed by police last year. 500 whites were killed by police last year and white people are all like “stupid fucking criminal deserved it”

37,999,800 black people managed to not get in a situation where a cop kills them but somehow you choose to defend the 200 stupid fucks that don’t know when to surrender? It must be a big ass fucking miracle for the 37,999,800 black people who manage to do the right thing.
It’s not a black and white thing, it’s a criminal and not criminal thing.

MH

Ok Mike, made up numbers don’t equate to facts. You are entitled to your false sense of reality as it pertains to racism because in your mind, all “200” of those “stupid fucking criminals” you mentioned were in fact participating in a criminal act when they were killed right? Was Tamir Rice, was Trayvon Martin, should I continue? But what about the shooters of Sandy Hook, Newton, Aurora, Orlando, are they not criminals as well, or is it only ok for officers to feel a posed threat against criminals whose skin color just happens to have a bit more melanin than theirs? This is an argument you can’t win because the fact remains that most non-white Americans have been conditioned to feel threatened by black men because they perceive them as “thugs” because they are larger in size, intimidating, and not always walking around with a smile and a coke. Spare me your silly numbers, we know how this will end, you feel threatened by a black person, you shoot him, you get paid leave, the world keeps spinning and you keep saying “I’m not racist, I’m a realist” and we say “We don’t believe you” This isn’t 1956, time has shown that we will prevail and you will deal with it! There aren’t any more ships going back to Africa, so if you feel a ways about that, Canada has property readily available for you to move in to, here’s the link: http://www.remax.ca/ Other than that, just pray about, God loves racist as well.

Chris Guess

Sterling wasn’t committing crimes? What do you call possessing illegal fire arms and drugs? resisting arrest IS a crime too like it or not. Resisting arrest while trying to use your illegal fire arm to do it? What do you call that? You have lost touch with reality.

Ghost

This article has nothing to due with the situation that occurred this a total brainwashing attempt to sway the public into thinking this murder is justifiable when in reality it wasn’t a subdued man shit six times point blank range in the chest but I just saw a video of a Caucasian suspect fighting two officers and no gun was pulled to stop him he fought with for minutes even took it outside and continued fighting them and he wasn’t shot but Alton was on the ground with two officers holding him down and was murdered so with that being said this post was just a attempt to brainwash the masses

charlie coyote

he was resisting and reaching for a gun. One less piece of shit in america. glad that fat fuck got put down

Chris Guess

he wasn’t subdued. he was still fighting for the gun and wrestling with the officers to get to it.

County Cop

As a cop of 8 years, and one who has disarmed men, been shot at repeatedly and been part of an OIS where a bath salt crazed man killed his wife and then went after an officer with a sword, on the surface, with this video, this looks bad for the cops.

Yes, you hear “he’s got a gun”, but he’s pinned down by two officers and one points a firearm at his head. Nope, I couldn’t make up what was going on at the waistline, but from the current vantage point, it definitely looked like the second officer had the suspect ‘ s hands controlled. And then there’s the statement that they pulled the gun from his pocket afterwards. Really? It’s just an inanimate object in the pocket with no hands on it. Yep, I heard two Taser pops that didn’t work before going hands on. Afterwards, if struggling to maintain control of his hands, disengage, get distance and cover yourself in case he does pull out the firearm. You don’t shoot him in the situation as seen in the video. Not in my opinion and not with what can be seen.

Now, I could be wrong, other footage might show something different. But a reasonable person, watching this video, is going to most likely reach the conclusion that excessive force was used. And if it bears out that excessive force was used, the officers need charged accordingly. But the flip is also true, if other footage, irrefutable evidence shows the cop’s side to be more accurate, people have got to let it go.

In the mean time, let the investigation get done, and I hope EBRPD will release all videos in the name of transparency.

Bad decisions, followed by cover ups make all of us look bad.

a silent dude

Thank you for your unbias comment officer.

Chris Guess

Looks like to me the problem was that they didn’t have enough force for this behemoth. Taser didn’t even bring him down.

All the critics that say what cops should and should not do watch too much tv…..if a person has a gun and they are told to keep their hands up, then they put their hands down, guess what….that’s a threat, time to shoot.

Brittany

I’m just going to leave this here for those of you who think this was a great guy, family man.

Did you read the snopes article that the photo is hosted at or just repost it from somewhere else?

Mika Evans

I think the point is that when viewing thexperience footage and he was pinned down why shoot several times in back and chest. Now yall are saying that it’s ok because he was a criminal. If you have committed no crimes then I could see your logic. Also police can not take justice into their own hands and someone set that up for him to get murdered. IS IT OK TO TAKE JUSTICE IN YOUR OWN HANDS PEOPLE?

charlie coyote

I am glad the cops shot that racist piece of shit alton sterling. Alton Sterling was a piece of shit and he died like a piece of shit. I am glad that fat piece of shit is dead

Chris Guess

No, He was shot because he had his hand in his pocket with a gun in it even while being pinned down. The Officer couldn’t get the gun away from him when alton shrugged the officer off him.

AuteursRevenge

All this situation did was cause several more cops to lose their lives unnecessarily. People who can’t be controlled are not going to sit idly by and watch this happen and do nothing. They are going to take matters into their own hands and react violently, as history has proven. If black lives DON’T matter then neither do blue. That is the statement these people are making. So either make it so that due process is allowed to everyone or more cops are going to get targeted. It is so sad to watch this train wreck happen because I have friends and family on the police force. I do not want to see them harmed because of their choice of occupation. Resisting arrest is NOT an executable offense. Our founding fathers said so. If you’re a REAL American, shit like this would bother you to your core because you know with each life taken, each liberty stomped upon it means it is one step closer to it becoming YOUR freedom and liberties taken. You all better wake up and smell the GD coffee. They start by taking away the rights and liberties of groups you don’t like/care about and then before you know it, you’re next on the chopping block.

charlie coyote

it does not bother me and I am a real americvan. alton sterling was a fat fuck racist welfare recipient piece of shit. He molested children never had a fucking job and shit on america everyday and wiped his ass with an american flag. america put that racist fat piece of shit down

Chris Guess

So basically you want to find police officers guilty without a trial. Some due process that is. That is mob justice,not due process. He wasn’t shot being a known criminal, or because he was black, or because he was resisting arrest. He was shot in self defense because he tried to pull out a gun. end of story.

Chris Guess

Okay. one last time. any one who thinks the officers had actual control of this guy when he was shot is an idiot! he is too big, and even on the ground while he has his hand in his pocket with his gun (which he can shoot while still in his pocket) they aren’t going to easily be able to get that gun out of his hand.